iPhone / WidgetKit

Motionary

Animated Home Screen widgets, with your apps on them. A widget that plays, a wallpaper that carries the rest of the picture, and your launchers sitting on top of both.

Setting up

1. Save the wallpaper. Swipe sideways in the app to pick a design, then tap the save button in the corner. Motionary asks once to add pictures to Photos; that is the only permission it needs.
2. Set it as your wallpaper. In Settings, open Wallpaper and add a new one from Photos. Set it for the Home Screen, and turn off Perspective Zoom so the picture stays exactly where the widget expects it.
3. Place the widget. Touch and hold the Home Screen, tap Edit, then Add Widget. Choose Motionary and drop the tall widget at the top of a page. It lines up with the wallpaper underneath it.
4. Make it yours. Tap the grid button in the app to change what each spot opens: the app, its icon, or a link. Swipe between designs any time; the widget follows the app.

The same steps are in the app under the grid button, Options, then How to set it up.

Good to know

• Tapping an icon passes through Motionary. A widget cannot open another app on its own, so every tap opens Motionary for a moment and Motionary opens the app. That flash is how it works, not something going wrong.
• The animation keeps time with the clock. The widget and the app both play from the wall clock, so opening the app continues the loop rather than restarting it. A short pause every so often is the loop wrapping around.
• The widget draws when the system decides. After placing it, give it up to a minute. Opening Motionary asks the system to redraw it.
• New designs come from a Mac. Designs are made in Motionary Studio on macOS and sent to the phone over the local network, or opened from a .motionary file. The designs built into the app are ready to use as they are.

When it does not line up

• Check that Perspective Zoom is off on the wallpaper. Any zoom or parallax shifts the picture under the widget.
• The widget belongs at the top of a Home Screen page. A design is cut for that one position.
• The wallpaper has to be the one saved from the same design that the app is showing. Switching designs in the app means saving and setting the wallpaper again.
• If your iPhone model is not one the app has been measured on, the widget may sit a few pixels off. Write in with the model and it can be added.

Contact

Questions, a design that will not line up, or a phone that is not on the list yet: caden@cadenwarren.com. Include your iPhone model and iOS version and the answer comes faster.